In open-cast ore mining, the ore is collected over a large surface requiring the implementation of means for conveying the ore to a storage or vehicle loading point.
It is known to provide a facility for conveying ores on the mining site. The latter commonly includes a first conveyor, called collector, positioned along an edge of the mined area. This first conveyor is stationary for the entire mining period of the zone.
A second conveyor is positioned transversely to the first conveyor. This second conveyor passes all the way through the mined area. This conveyor is suitable for transferring the materials collected from the ground toward the first conveyor, above which its release end emerges.
In order to allow mining of the entire area to be mined, the second conveyor is movable, along the length of the first conveyor, so as to find itself in the current mining region. This second conveyor is generally moved transversely to its conveying direction.
It is known that the second conveyor includes a series of support posts distributed along the length of the conveyor belt of the conveyor. These support posts are independent and provide support for the conveyor belt.
In order to allow the second conveyor to shift by several meters transversely along its conveying direction, the support posts are most often connected to one another by a longilineal link positioned along the length of the second conveyor.
To ensure the shifting of each of the stations successively along the length of the second conveyor, a vehicle stressing the link transversely to its elongation direction is moved along the length of the second conveyor. This vehicle, for example made up of a construction vehicle with tracks, includes a member for receiving the link rigidly connected to the vehicle. This member grips the link. It is moved along the length of the link while forcing the link to shift gradually by several meters perpendicular to the conveying direction of the second conveyor.
A conveying facility of this type is for example known from FR-A-2,834,501.
However, such conveying facilities are not fully satisfactory. Indeed, each time the vehicle moves, the second transporter is only moved transversely by several meters, which requires circulating the vehicle many times from one end of the second conveyor to the other when the conveyor must be moved over a large distance. This results in unavailability of the conveyor over a significant length of time, which may have negative consequences on the production of the ore mine.